– Steve Hitchen
UniSA's literary review paper has found that human factors and poor quality training are major contributors to GA accidents, particularly in IMC and reduced viz. I will try not to be too cynical or smart-arse here, but there's not a lot new in those conclusions! Human factors such as press-on-itis and "it'll never happen to me" have plagued GA for decades, and instrument training for VFR pilots has been woefully inadequate from the dawn of our industry. The paper made other conclusions as well, but these two are the top of the tree, and despite it being second on the list, I believe we need to promote training standards ahead of human factors, simply because there is an easier solution. I wrote an article recently on VFR into IMC (Australian Flying March-April 2025), and during the research I found that subject-matter experts were advocating for 10 hours of instrument training for VFR pilots. The current standard is two hours. Two hours will tick you a box on the CASA syllabus, but won't save you in cloud. UniSA's authors point out that new technology could help in training if adapted correctly. I agree. Virtual reality systems are enabling high-quality simulation in safe environments that may, depending on the fidelity, better prepare pilots for emergency situations than actual in-flight practice. Other flight training devices are getting smaller and cheaper, making them more practical for FTOs to install. So, whilst this paper doesn't really present anything new, it does add to a growing voice demanding better training standards.
AMG has been given the green light to build a major hangar development at Bankstown, but it could be a hollow victory. The development is valued at $60 million and AMG is talking up the project, but the very government that issued the building approval has also approved new airspace architecture that is threatening to strangle the life out of the airport. When you write out a cheque for $60 million, you need to have confidence the money (and more) is coming back your way. Right now, I don't know from where AMG draws the confidence they can make this development pay given that tenants are openly seeking alternatives to Bankstown Airport. When companies want out, where do you find tenants for new hangars? When AMG sent off the major development plan, neither the 2024 Aviation White Paper or the Western Sydney Airport airspace changes had been published. Now, it's hard to see how the numbers crunched in early 2024 stack up against the reality coming their way. Unless saving grace comes soon, I expect the hand that signs the cheque will be very shaky. Salvation can come only with a plan that connects Bankstown to a practical training area. That concept lies with CASA's Office of Airspace Regulation, which has–possibly unfairly–been lumbered with an impossible task of saving Bankstown Airport. Their first attempt created more safety issues than it solved, which has the GA community hanging out for OAR's next idea. Bankstown is still breathing for the moment, and OAR may yet manufacture a lifeline, but if I was AMG, I wouldn't be turning any sod until we know for sure.
I get many press releases sent to me about new products or services, and many of these announcements are littered with superlatives like "game-changing", "ground-breaking", "industry-leading" and in the case of books "bestseller". So few times in aviation history has the superlative been earned. Had I been in the aviation writing game in 1975, I probably would have thought the same of the Robinson R22. History has shown that I would have been wrong; if there ever was a game-changer, the R22 was it. Now 50 years old, the R22 is still in production and still a key weapon in pilot training. It's the result of the foresight of Frank Robinson, who figured that helicopters needed to be within the reach of more people without having to shell out the GDP of a small country. The R22 provided exactly that, and there wouldn't be too many rotary FTOs operating without an R22 or its offspring R44 on the books. Way back in 1975, Robinson introduced their game-changer, and the ensuing half century has proven the R22 has earned the superlative.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch